Speech Motor Control : New Developments in Basic and Applied Research

Speaking is not only the basic mode of communication, but also the most complex motor skill humans can perform. Disorders of speech and language are the most common sequelae of brain disease or injury, a condition faced by millions of people each year. Health care practitioners need to interact with basic scientists in order to develop and evaluate new methods of clinical diagnosis and therapy to help their patients overcome or compensate their communication difficulties. In recent years, collaboration between those in the the disciplines of neurophysiology, cognitive psychology, mathematical modelling, neuroscientists, and speech science have helped accelerate progress in the field.

This book presents the latest and most important theoretical developments in the area of speech motor control, offering new insights by leaders in their field into speech disorders. The scope of this book is broad - presenting state-of-the art research in the areas of modelling, genetics, brain imaging, behavioral experimentation in addition to clinical applications.

The book will be valuable for researchers and clinicians in speech-language pathology, cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, and neurology.

Ben Maassen (Professor of Neurolinguistics - Dyslexia) has a background in cognitive neuropsychology and speech-language pathology. He is project coordinator in the Dutch Dyslexia Programme, leader of projects on speech motor control and developmental neuropsychological disorders, and teacher in the master-programme Speech-Language Pathology and research-master programmes Clinical Linguistics (Erasmus Mundus) and Cognitive Neuroscience. Main research areas are neurogenic speech disorders, perception-production modelling, dyslexia and neurocognitive precursors of literacy. As a Clinical Neuropsychologist he is coordinator of an expertise centre for children with speech and language disorders. Pascal van Lieshout is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Toronto, a Canada Research (II) in Oral Motor Function, and director of the Oral Dynamics Lab. His interest is in oral motor control in speech and swallowing with a focus on applying Dynamical Systems Theory in these areas of research. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, books and conference proceedings and is renowned for his studies of articulation in speech motor disorders, in particular stuttering.